Suicidal, addicted, rapists… Could they stop being so if an implant in their brains controlled their irrepressible bad impulses? Perhaps, suggests a team of scientists from Stanford University (United States) that has managed to reduce by means of electrodes the outbursts that lead mice to gorge themselves on food.
These researchers have found that the delta waves of the nucleus accumbens – a group of neurons in the brain – of rodents oscillate significantly in the moments before they are rewarded with food, and have been able to use neurostimulation using electrodes to stop that oscillation that becomes an irresistible urge to feed yourself to bursting.
What is interesting is that similar alterations in the nucleus accumbens have been detected in humans related to the anticipation of reward, which indicates that, as in animals, neurostimulation could be used in treatments to control disordered appetite , and even much more serious and dangerous mental disorders for the sufferer and for other people.
When the brain “clicks”
Just before impulsive behavior, the nucleus accumbens sends out electrical signals that trigger that uncontrolled act, the Stanford scientists say. This region of the brain is related to pleasure, fear, aggression, and addictions, and is part of the brain’s reward system.
Researchers have found that if an electrical impulse is sent to the nucleus accumbens just as it activates that dangerous signal, the impulsive behavior of mice stops.
If this method could be applied to human beings, it would open a door to the control of conduct disorders in which the reward circuit plays a key role: drug addiction, gambling and sex, disorderly eating, seizures anger and other self-destructive or aggressive behaviors.
Casey Halpern, professor of neurosurgery at Stanford and one of those responsible for the experiment, speculates in statements to the British newspaper The Telegraph about the possible applications of this research published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences: “Imagine that we could predict and prevent suicides , binge eating disorder or uncontrolled outbursts of anger. If there are no neurostimulation devices to control these bad impulses, it is because until now the way in which the brain triggers them had not been identified. But now we have found for the first time a biomarker of compulsive behavior ”.
